UNCG Baseball Continues Offensive Surge to Ensure Series Victory at Western Carolina: Caleb Cozart(Wesleyan Christian Academy) and Luke Jenkins(Grimsley HS) help Spartans pick up another “W”

UNCG Baseball Continues Offensive Surge to Ensure Series Victory at Western Carolina

CULLOWHEE, N.C. – The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) baseball team slugged its way to a 15-11 victory over the Western Carolina Catamounts in The Southern Conference (SoCon) action on Saturday afternoon at Ronnie G. Childress Field at Hennon Stadium.

With the win in game two of three in the series, the Spartans, who are now 7-4 in conference play, picked up their third SoCon series victory out of four so far this season. A win in Sunday’s finale would mark UNCG’s first SoCon series sweep of the season.

The game also marked UNCG’s 11th game and third straight time posting 10 or more runs this season. The Spartans are undefeated when accomplishing the feat this year.

HOW IT HAPPENED
UNCG broke into the score column first for a fourth game in a row on Saturday when Caleb Cozart(Wesleyan Christian Academy) hit a line drive up the middle to score a pair. Cozart then came around to score on an RBI double to left by Mitchell Smith. GC Jarman capped the scoring at 4-0 in the top of the first when he crossed the plate on an RBI ground out from Zachary Walsh.

The second inning saw eight more Spartans bat on the way to plating three more runs for a 7-0 lead. After Luke Holland reached with a leadoff single and stole second, he later scored on an RBI double down the left-field line by Aidan Brewer. Then Jake Ogden singled up the middle to score a pair, which extended the lead to seven.

After Brewer sent a sacrifice fly out to right to score Luke Jenkins(Grimsley HS) in the top of the third, the Catamounts answered with their first run of the afternoon in the bottom half of the fourth with Drew Needham flying out for a sacrifice fly of his own to cut it to an 8-1 ballgame.

After Walsh scored on a throwing error in an attempt to catch the Spartans stealing in the fifth, WCU’s Mason Holton launched a solo home run before Nate Stocum and James Hinson hit back-to-back RBI doubles to shave UNCG’s lead to five, 9-4.

The Spartans extended their lead back to seven runs in the sixth when Cozart doubled to left to score Brewer from third and later scored on a throwing error. However, the Catamounts stormed back in the bottom half with five runs to cut UNCG’s lead to a pair, 11-9. After Kyle Riesselmann and Stocum singled to score runs, Hinson blasted his second home run of the afternoon out to right, which plated three more runs.

UNCG answered in the next half inning, plating three runs on five hits. Jeremy Wolf got it started with an RBI ground out that scored Jenkins before Ogden and Cozart supplied the Spartans with RBI singles to extend the lead to 14-9 in the bottom of the sixth.

In the seventh frame, Zach Ketterman sent a solo home run out to right to cut the Spartans’ lead back down to three. Riesselmann then doubled down the left-field line to shave it to 14-11.

Wolf put UNCG back in front by four, 15-11, when he drove in Walsh on ground out in the eighth.

NOTES:

The Spartans have now won their last five meetings against the Catamounts dating back to March 24, 2023.
Jay Miller started on the hill for the Spartans and went 4.2 innings with eight hits and four runs against.
Danny Thompson Jr. picked up the win in relief for the Spartans to improve to 4-3 on the season. He pitched 1.2 innings out of the pen after coming in for Miller.
Mayson Dear was the Spartans’ third and final arm of the afternoon. He pitched the remaining 2.2 innings and held the Catamounts to just one run on three hits.
Brewer, Cozart, Ogden and Holland each recorded three hits to lead UNCG. Cozart paced the Spartans with four RBI in the contest.
Brewer and Holland each led the Spartans with a pair of stolen bases as well.
PITCHING RECORDS:
Danny Thompson Jr.: W, 4-3
Davis Budd: L, 0-1

RECORDS:
UNCG: 19-14, 7-4, SoCon
WCU: 18-14, 4-4, SoCon

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UP NEXT
The Spartans close out their three-game series against the Catamounts on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Cullowhee.

Courtesy of Connor Wachtel
Strategic Communications Coordinator
UNC Greensboro